The OPay IPO was withdrawn on October 30, 2026, when the company pulled a $304 million New York Stock Exchange listing. OPay cited a regulatory inquiry in a foreign jurisdiction it declined to name.
OPay Limited had priced 16 million American depositary shares at $19 each only hours earlier, the bottom of a $19 to $21 range. That valued the SoftBank-backed fintech at about $4 billion (Reuters, October 30, 2026).
It would have been one of the largest listings ever attempted by an African consumer fintech. No ADS ever began trading. SoftBank entities held 6.6% before the offering, and nine investors had indicated up to $270 million of interest.
The OPay IPO priced 16 million ADSs at $19
OPay priced 16,000,000 American depositary shares at $19.00 each, or about ₦25,580 at the October 30 official rate. Each ADS represents ten ordinary shares.
The Securities and Exchange Commission declared the registration statement effective on October 29, 2026. The shares were expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker OPAY.
The prospectus put monthly active users at 50.1 million as of July 31, 2026, across Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia. A banner for OPay hung at the exchange to mark the debut (Reuters, October 30, 2026).
should not be misconstrued as a reflection on the Company’s business performance, financial condition, operational integrity, or regulatory standing — OPay Limited, in a statement reported by Reuters
Citi, Deutsche Bank and Standard Bank led the syndicate
Citigroup Global Markets, Deutsche Bank’s Hong Kong branch and The Standard Bank of South Africa acted as joint book-running managers. B. Riley Securities and Needham & Company were co-managers, and CICC appeared on the preliminary prospectus cover.
FinanceTracked reported in August that OPay had retained Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan was not named at pricing.
The OPay IPO was expected to close on November 2, 2026, subject to customary closing conditions. Underwriters held a 30-day option over a further 2,400,000 ADSs, which would have lifted the raise to $349.6 million.
OPay calls the unnamed jurisdiction immaterial
OPay described the jurisdiction as immaterial to its core operations and said it expected the matter to be resolved satisfactorily in the near future.
It did not identify the regulator or the nature of the inquiry. The company said the matter would not affect its operations, regulatory standing or customer service in Nigeria or its other markets.
That leaves investors unable to size the problem. An inquiry weighty enough to stop a priced deal is being described as immaterial to the business behind it.
No formal withdrawal filing has appeared at the SEC
OPay registered the ADSs under Section 12(b) on October 26 through a Form 8-A tied to registration statement 333-299385. The Securities and Exchange Commission declared the registration effective on October 29, 2026 (SEC, October 26, 2026).
No filing formally withdrawing the OPay IPO registration had appeared as of this review. EDGAR indexing can lag, so that is an observation rather than proof.
The distinction matters because abandoning an offering and withdrawing a registration statement are separate acts. OPay has not said which it intends. The registration is an IPO registration statement, not a shelf.
Revenue more than doubled, and the loss became profit
OPay says its financial performance was not the reason the deal stopped.
Revenue rose to $536.3 million in 2025 from $205.7 million, and a $50.8 million loss became $72.5 million of net income. First-half 2026 revenue reached $467.1 million with net income of $90.9 million (SEC, October 23, 2026).
Nigeria supplies close to 90% of OPay revenue
The OPay IPO prospectus put gross transaction value at $358.0 billion in 2025, against $166.2 billion. Monthly active users rose to 39.3 million from 25.1 million.
Nigeria produced 88.1% of 2025 revenue and 89.5% in the first half of 2026. That concentration is why FinanceTracked examined in May what a New York listing would mean for the data of OPay’s Nigerian users.
Key numbers behind the OPay IPO
- 16,000,000 American depositary shares priced at $19.00 each (OPay, October 30, 2026)
- $304 million of gross proceeds at a valuation near $4 billion (Reuters, October 30, 2026)
- $536.3 million of 2025 revenue, against $205.7 million in 2024 (SEC, October 23, 2026)
- $260.3 million from loan financing services in 2025, with $121.3 million set aside for expected credit losses (SEC, October 23, 2026)
- 89.5% of first-half 2026 revenue earned in Nigeria (SEC, October 23, 2026)
Lending is the largest revenue line and the biggest provision
The OPay IPO prospectus shows loan financing services generated $260.3 million in 2025, about half of all revenue. Against that, OPay set aside $121.3 million for expected credit losses.
Loans overdue by 90 days or more stood at 5.2% of gross loan receivables at the end of 2025. That eased to 4.3% at June 30, 2026 (SEC, October 23, 2026).
More on Nigerian fintechs moving into credit:
Grey outgrows its payments-only identity with Paycheck
Shareholder-linked investors indicated up to $80 million
Three of the nine indications came from investors linked to existing shareholders.
The filing describes SCC Foresight Ventures and an affiliate as affiliated with existing shareholders, at up to $30 million. 3W Fund Management, the investment manager of one shareholder, indicated up to $30 million. SBVA, a shareholder itself, indicated up to $20 million.
That was $80 million, about 30% of the $270 million indicated for the OPay IPO. None of it was a commitment to buy.
do not constitute binding agreements, commitments or obligations to purchase ADSs — OPay Limited, Form F-1/A filed with the SEC, October 23, 2026
Standard Bank’s $200M placement is left unresolved
Stanbic Africa Holdings, part of Standard Bank Group, had agreed to a concurrent private placement capped at $200 million. It was conditional on the offering closing.
The preliminary prospectus estimated about $183.6 million of net proceeds at the $20 midpoint of the range. The OPay IPO priced below that, at $19.
The filing also records board and shareholder approval to pursue a secondary listing on the Nigerian Exchange, subject to market conditions. FinanceTracked reported in August that OPay was preparing what would be the NGX Technology Board’s first listing.
Nasdaq fell 5.2% in October as listings slipped
The OPay IPO landed in a weak tape. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.86% on October 30 and closed the month down 5.2%.
Reuters noted that companies worldwide had been delaying listings as inflation and an AI-driven selloff weighed on investor sentiment.
The corrective process may not be complete — Keith Lerner, chief investment officer, Truist, on the technology selloff, quoted by Yahoo Finance
More on IPO filings under scrutiny:
Anthropic IPO filing shows revenue up 14x to $16.3B
What to watch on the OPay IPO
The registration remains effective, and no withdrawal filing has appeared. What OPay intends to do with it is unresolved.
A formal withdrawal filing would make the SEC position clearer. A resolved inquiry and an updated prospectus would signal another attempt at the OPay IPO, and would show at what price.
OPay says its accounts were not the reason the deal stopped. The unresolved issue is regulatory: what the unnamed authority is examining, and what the company must do before investors and underwriters are comfortable proceeding.
